On November 12th, the acting chairwoman’s last day at the Public Utilities Commission, who reports to the governor, issued an order at 7:30 p.m.
Aside from the order’s dubious timing, it exposes a theme common to the governor’s administration: slash and burn. The order not only severely reduces the budgets for energy efficiency spending but also removes the incentives needed for the utilities to administer the program.
Why would the Public Utilities Commission do this? These cuts will fail to yield any significant cost decrease for New Hampshire residents. It is reasonable to think that the commissioners did it to combat the rapid increase in electric prices. But this is demonstrably not what will occur. Rates will increase significantly regardless of the order.
My latest electric bill has a charge of $178. The System Benefits Charge (SBC), which is the cost each ratepayer bears to fund the program, was $8.26. Under the PUC’s rate decrease, my SBC cost will be lowered to $5.72, saving me a total sum of $2.48 for the month. Less than three dollars a month? I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but that extra $2.48 will not provide any measurable benefit to my or most people’s financial health.
What about those that will benefit from an extra $2.48 per month in their pocket? One major component of NHSaves is the Home Energy Assistance program. This covers 100% of the cost of energy retrofits for income-eligible households or apartment buildings.
The resulting savings are typically between 10% to 20% of the customers’ annual energy usage, which on average equates to an annual cost savings of between $300 and $500 per customer. Compare that to the $2.48 per month savings that PUC has so generously provided.
Wouldn’t you rather support the energy efficiency industry that employs many New Hampshire workers and invest in our buildings to reduce energy costs overall? Or would you rather save the collective ratepayers $2.48 per month? Energy efficiency is a far better investment.
To those not income eligible, I urge you to participate in the NHSaves Home Energy Performance with Energy Star program, which covers roughly 30% of energy-reducing improvements to your home. My house received $7,300 worth of insulation work and I paid $5,110. Although this is a lot of money, it cut my energy usage by 23%, saving $637 per year.
This yields a simple payback of 8 years, assuming energy prices stay at their current levels. Sadly, we are heading into a winter of extremely high energy prices. We are going to see our electric rates increase from 0.162 $/kWh up to 0.26 $/kWh. That is a 62% increase. This will bring my bill of $178 up to a staggering $285.
It is clear, we need energy efficiency more than ever here in New Hampshire. I urge everyone to make their voices heard and tell their local legislators that we need to save the NHSaves program. We need the legislature and the governor to hear that a cost savings of $2.48 per month does not justify the slash and burn campaign.
(Chase Pennoyer lives in Concord.)